For the TF2 blog anyways. I’m just gonna point you towards it real quick, becuase I don’t have time to evaluate the information contained within. Let it suffice to say that the scout update is nearly here.

Here’s the post.

EDIT: Daed: So the update has been online and already there’s a problem – apparently natascha doesn’t slow down people at all now. Obviously a screwup on valve’s part, they did say they were intending to buff it.

A noticeable change is that cloaked spies will now NOT get the particle beam from the dispenser whenever they siphon health and ammo from it. Engies, start running around your dispensers and whack the air above them. Who knows, you might get a free kill!

So about a month ago my 8800 decided to fizz out on me, and the warranty took so long that I started recording soundclips from the second season of Johnny Bravo. Originally I wanted it to be a hunter soundpack, but that didn’t really work out in my head. The card’s still in warranty, I’ve no idea what they’re doing with it, but in the mean time I got a new 4850. But enough about that, download link and more info after the jump.

Continue reading »

We all know him- his strange stance, cigar case held high, oblivious to all that is happening around him. He is the spy crab, a harmless, innocent player who is only joking around, asking you to please let him be.

I REFUSE.

Well, bad news for ya, buddy. THIS IS A WAR ZONE.

People die- innocent people!

You can’t just march in and ask for complete immunity. Where do you think you are? Some game?

I have one policy against these spy crabs:

No one is safe- not even those who plead, uselessly, for me to leave them alone.

“What are you doing man? You killed a spy crab!”

“NO MERCY.”

“Its just a spy crab! You don’t kill spy crabs!”

“NO MERCY!”

“But that’s just-”

“NO MERCY!!!”

So, if you please, drop the stupid ruse. This is not for fun. This is WAR! Don’t expect mercy from me, because you know my policy.

NO MERCY!

The chaps over at The Escapist have posted an interview with Robin Walker, one of the original Team Fortress developers. A lot of interesting things in that article, including talk about the spy disguises getting an overhaul, new gamemodes, engineer sentry changes, and more.

We’ve got several new class designs floating around, some of which we like a lot, but right now we’re focusing on the broadening of our existing classes through the addition of the unlockables,

It’s good to see that the main problem with the spy’s disguise is being addressed, anyone who has played since TF2 went live on Steam can see the way the spy has changed over time. There’s also talk about implementing new classes if feasible, but they first want to nail down the class upgrades. In my opinion, new classes simply shy away from the original TF concept, but considering Valve’s tendency to get things right, we could actually see a new class that can have a balanced role on the battlefield in the future.

 
SO! Valve got their butts out of winter break slack-town and got to work. “Doing what?” you may ask.

Nothing more than patching everybody’s favorite four player co-op zombie apocalypse survival game!

Here’s a full list of the changes. Now, I’d like to pont out a few of my favorite fixes:

- Added HUD elements to show status of other infected players.

This is a good one. I was tired of playing versus and not seeing another infected player’s name appear when I look at them. While I only expect this to mean that names are now shown, I wouldn’t be surprised if things like “pouncing” or “strangling” got indicated as well. (I can’t go and directly see the changes myself yet.)

- Tongue attacks that fail to paralyze or hang a Survivor will use the shorter ability delay timer.

This is nice for losers like me who would always miss with their first two tounge attacks and wind up dead while the next is rechagring.

- Easier to pounce a Survivor who is meleeing.

- Increased Minimum damage a Hunter pounce does.

This is just good for hunters who suck. Again, like me.

- Tank spawns at the same % through the map for both teams in versus mode. 

- Made the Tank and Witch spawn directly on the escape route.

- Bashable objects now appear with a red glow.

- Tanks hitting a car with an alarm disables the alarm permanently.

- Tank frustration timer is only reset by hitting Survivors with rocks or fists.

- Reduced autoshotgun damage against Tanks.

All good fixes. This makes tanks much easier to use for both teams, and makes sure that unfair tank spawns were less likely. It also encourages players to whack things as tanks, which not enough players (myself included) knew how to do. Also, it fixes the annoying “auto shottie = instant death” thing tanks run into.

- Fixed exploit where players could spawn infected bots

“:D” That’s all I can say. I hate people who do this.

Well, as soon as I can get back to L4D, I look forward to finding out how good these are myself. ‘Till then, cya!

Like, next week, or at least “very soon,” according to Kotaku. It might include a L4D SDK update, so you know what that means: That’s right, community made L4D campaigns! Hooray!

Yeah, that’s all I got. I recommend watching the in-game interview linked off the the article if you’re bored.

Well, besides the fact that the pack got removed from FPSBanana, I updated the TourettesTank so that you should not hear any screeching due to mismatched file lengths, and now the tank should cycle through all his voice files properly. But, if you have no idea what I’m talking about, or want to download the pack, hit the jump. Continue reading »

So, I finally got L4D, which means I have some stuff to write about. Let me summarize my first impressions in a few chioce words:

OH MY GOD ZOMBIES GET OUT OF THERE SHOOT THEM KILL THEM KILL THEM ALL HELP WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING IT HURLED ON ME OH GOD WHATS HAPPENING SHOOT THEM USE YOUR GUNS DAMMIT WHAT IS THAT THING OH ITS CLAWING ME TO DEATH OH GOD IM GONNA DIE HELP OH WHY ME OH WHY oh I died.

This is kinda what it looked like.

In other words, I had a great time. The guns have oomph, the zombies are scary enough, and the characters are well developed and easy to like. The main problem is that I was able to play through all the campaigns in a single day. In other words, it was much too short.

This is probably repeated quite often through this thing we call the internet, so I’m only going to say it once.

VALVE: HURRY THE HELL UP AND GIVE US SOME MORE CAMPAIGNS.

For those of you who don’t have it yet, I still heartily recommend L4D. If you do have it, good. Lets both hope for new maps together. Maybe it will happen. You know, eventually.

Oh, and one more thing: In versus mode, please don’t do this. It doesn’t make you cool, or smart, or better at the game. It just makes you a jerk. Play the game without exploits- it makes the whole thing much more fun for everyone. Thanks.

Edit: One more thing I want to complain about: Why can’t I see where other people’s flashlights are shining? While the beam is visible, there is no light actually produced for anyone but themselves. Being able to see by their light would make looking through small, dark rooms much easier- and you would be able to see more distinctly what they are looking at. I can’t see why Valve didn’t include this.

(Or maybe my graphics settings are wrong? Can any of you see by someone else’s light?)